Colin Powell: Republicans should halt voter ID push

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that Republicans should not have tried to reduce voter turnout during their failed effort to win the White House, doubling down on his recent criticism of the GOP.

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“Should we really have gone after reducing the turnout of voters in those places where we thought it would make a difference? The Republican Party should be a party that says, ‘We want everybody to vote,’ and make it easier to vote and give them a reason to vote for the party, [whereas] not to find ways to keep them from voting at all,” Powell said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Powell, who worked under President George W. Bush, continued: “What’s happened in the last few years, is the party has shifted dramatically to the right — that’s perfectly acceptable, but if you stay that far to the right, you’re losing where the country is.”

But while the GOP has headed to the right, the nation has moved to the middle with changing demographics.

“The country is moving more toward the center. There are social changes taking place in this country that are irreversible and there is demographic change … you can’t just say, ‘Well, we’ll fix our message,’” he said. “It’s not the message. You have to appeal with policies and programs to these people who are going to be the leaders of our country in a generation.”

Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Jan. 13 that the GOP had a “dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party.”